Here are 5 rules that I try to follow each day to help me stay focused on growth:

Train yourself to never blame your team, your boss, your product, your customers, your competitors or the market; this kind of perspective forces you to innovate.

If you're answering emails and returning phone calls all day you're not initiating. Don't be satisfied for one second with an empty inbox. Set aside time to initiate and create, on your own, every single day.

Always be a few steps ahead of your customers; satisfy them with the product they've bought, but spend most of your time leading them towards Version X.

The balance of getting results today but also building for the future is one of the biggest challenges you'll face. Get comfortable with it, this never gets easy.

Separate what you do each day into two buckets: business as usual (BAU) and incremental growth (i.e. growth that comes from incremental work that you haven't done yet). Focus 80% of your time on the latter.